atoz wrote:I posted this because it's a classic example of bike as "boy toy" rather than as practical sustainable transport.
Plenty of "girl toys" too. The desire to ride fast is by no means purely masculine.
atoz wrote:I posted this because it's a classic example of bike as "boy toy" rather than as practical sustainable transport.
atoz wrote:I posted this because it's a classic example of bike as "boy toy" rather than as practical sustainable transport.
PH wrote:atoz wrote:I posted this because it's a classic example of bike as "boy toy" rather than as practical sustainable transport.
If you go to the front page of Evans website
https://www.evanscycles.com/
You'll see this promotion covers loads of bikes of all styles. The poster you've linked to shows a bike that they'll know appeals to many of their buyers, it'd be daft of them not to use it. Last time I was in Evans (Nottingham) a sales assistant was trying to gently persuade someone away from a road bike towards something more practical, it didn't sound like they were succeeding and of course they want the sale.
People buying and using bikes is a good thing, it would be a better thing if people weren't so critical of others choices. That goes both ways, I get different reactions depending on what I'm wearing and the bike I'm on, it'd be laughable if it wasn't so sad.
Tangled Metal wrote:My local Evans has a downstairs with the first bikes you got as you go in (ahead of you) are hybrids. Very practical bikes. To the right are so called endurance road bikes, to the left are kids bikes and used to be gravel / adventure / all road bikes but they changed it and I can't remember what to. Behind the block of hybrids and into the back room are mtb bikes. Upstairs are the main road bike collection with a handful of tourers.
Basically the most prominent bikes are probably the most useful to ppl new to cycling or who want a commuter / utility bike. Certainly not a boy toy product.
Mike Sales wrote:Cugel, I am as sceptical as anyone about the silly vagaries of fashion. I see the latest "new" old idea is marketed as gravel bikes. We used to have rough stuff, and then mountain bikes.
But I think you attribute too much power to Evans's advertising, and perhaps to the coordination between the various commercial interests. It is surely a symbiotic relationship between the fickle desire of the public for novelty and the desire of the trade to make money out of it.
Look at the vogue, fading now I think, for "fixies". I don't detect that this was instigated by the manufacturers, though they hurried to cash in.
I don't think the public is quite as sheep like, nor the advertisers so powerful that we can be led around so easily.
The public likes novelties, and I am sure you can give us a time line. I used to sell bikes, and I can assure you that it is nigh on impossible to make money trying to sell against the trend of fashion.
Bmblbzzz wrote:The last time I used Evans was a little under two years ago. I ordered an item from them to collect at my local branch. When it arrived, it turned out they'd got the wrong item.
The utility cyclist wrote:No wonder some are put off cycling with this kind of bilge circulating!